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You could probably get in contact with a local beekeeping group and tell them that you have a swarm - the one around here has a list of people that are willing to go out and catch rogue colonies, and give them a good home.
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May 26, 2009 23:25
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^^ But ... but ... free bees.  I got in late on the local bee provider's lists, and so won't be getting my first beeeees until tomorrow night. Then we're getting another two nucs on Thursday. Baptism by fire? gently caress yeah.
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May 27, 2009 06:18
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Well, to get at the bees, they'd have to expose the majority of the colony, which would entail cutting the tree apart. I don't imagine it's the healthiest tree around, if it has a void large enough for a colony, but not everyone's keen on tree removal. If they're not being a problem (building a nest in the side of your house, being really aggressive), then I would probably just enjoy them as they are. Touchy: We'd originally planned on only getting two hives (I really, really want lots of honey for mead  ), but my parent's next door neighbour keeps bees as his retirement business/hobby, and offered to hook us up with an extra queen and some bees. I'm not sure if he's got any capped brood to go along with her, or if it will just end up being more like a bee package than a nuc. The other two hives will be actual nucs - four frames of Has anyone else planted things for late summer nectar sources? I've picked up some bulk buckwheat, and plan on broadcasting that, as there is apparently a dearth of nectar late in the summer around here, and this should ameliorate the situation.
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May 27, 2009 18:00
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drat, that's too bad. We finally got our bees today, bright and early(ish). Took them home, shuffled the hives into the approximate location where we wanted them, and then started unboxing one of the nucs. After gently lifting one of the frames out, into the brood super, we came to the realization that ... something was amiss. Turns out, the guy supplying bees raises them on deep frames, and we only have Dadents.  Fooortunately, our parent's next door neighbour keeps bees as a retirement business/hobby, so I popped down, and it turned out that he'd retired all of his deep supers a while back - which meant that he had two, nicely clean and ready to go. I took them back up, swapped the frames into the proper depth super, placed the inner cover on the first hive, and stood back to marvel in it all. gently caress yeah, bees.  The second nuc went into its respective super without much fuss, although by that time, they were a little more active. Throughout the whole operation, not a single person was stung, despite the fact that I was only wearing a set of painting coveralls (yay for $8 bee gear), with latex gloves. My sister was wearing the only veil, and they definitely weren't acting aggressively towards her at all. We're going to have to replace most of the frames in the deep with proper depth ones (there's just regular Dadent frames in it to fill up the space), but hopefully they don't start drawing burr comb before we get the chance to do that. We also need to figure out a better spot for them that won't involve them getting the full blast of the afternoon sun, as apparently that might be a concern.  Oh, also, the bees were being kind of retarded and playing around on the loose ends of the duct tape, from the packaging - it almost looked like a dozen or so had trapped themselves, but I think they were just ...  They also apparently like to commit seppuku in the provided dish of sugar syrup, so means of escape were provided.
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May 31, 2009 01:02
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http://www.beemaster.com/site/honeybee/swarms.html It's not overly complex, but you may want to have a more experienced beekeeper on hand to just help you out with things. You can build the boxes (supers), if you're handy with woodworking, although some parts you're better off just buying (from a time/cost standpoint). The supers are pretty straightforward, as are the inner/outer cover, and bottom board - frames are really fiddly, though, and also require foundation material, which would be a pain to make. tl, dr: Find a local beekeeping club, beg/borrow/buy some used kit, and enlist the help of someone to help catch the swarm. Everything that I've been hearing around here paints the Hawaiian honey bees as being pretty chill, and they've been importing them (queens) into the region for a while. Pro tip: DON'T loving INSTALL BEES BY FLASHLIGHT My friend installed his bees a day after I did, only he did so after dark. The bees, of course, were totally disoriented, and cold, so where do you think they went? Onto the person standing nearest the hive. Poor little girls, only wanting a warm place to curl up on a cold night.
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Jun 3, 2009 08:56
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Well, if you need to move the pile, then you're definitely going to want to move the bees. Pictures would be helpful. In other news, it looks like I might have some larvae/pupae that have been killed off by chalk brood.  How this could happen, when it's in a dry spot, and we've not had rain since I installed the buggers is a mystery to me. I'm hoping that it's just something that was in the food I was leaving for them, and that removing that element will fix things. 
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Jun 7, 2009 23:54
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It could be - the neighbour came by yesterday and checked, and said that it just looked like they were cleaning out old/dead brood, and that it didn't look like it was any endemic thing like a brood disease. Looking a little closer at the description of chalkbrood, they don't quite fit the description, and it certainly doesn't fit the conditions. In other news, I'm thinking about packing one of the hives up and moving it to my house (rather than my parent's), since there appear to be almost zero honeybees anywhere nearby, and plenty of vegetable gardens. My only concern is that since it's deep, dark suburbia, that everyone will be using a metric fuckton of pesticides. 
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Jun 9, 2009 20:44
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Quite honestly I have no idea. I installed mine late, and there's also a large (like month long) gap in readily available nectar sources through July. If nothing else, the hives will be ready to make short shrift of the blackberries when they really open up in early August. So, if I get any, it likely won't be until August.
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Jun 11, 2009 08:33
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I stopped feeding them after about 10 days. They could probably use the help, but as you said, they're pretty drat voracious.
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Jun 17, 2009 18:17
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I only just put the second brood super on both of my hives this last few weeks, so I don't expect anything at all before late August. Then again, I started in May. 
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Jun 25, 2009 06:37
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Mine are perfectly content, and didn't even bother me when I added an extra super (or shuffled some frames around). They've also been on their own wrt food for almost a month now, so who knows.
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Jun 28, 2009 03:56
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My bees seem to be that wild, independant type: Me: Here guys, have some nice new foundation to draw comb on and build your brood. Them: gently caress YOU, WE'LL BUILD WHEREVER WE WANT. [bees proceed to build burr comb between first and second brood boxes, rather than actually drawing comb on the foundation]
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Jun 30, 2009 20:15
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Yeah, we're pretty hands off - although we did shuffle a few frames around a month ago, to try to get the bees to spread their whole operation out a bit. As far as gear goes, I don't wear any, and am usually tending/observing them in just shorts/t-shirt/shoes. I did put the veil on once when I was moving frames around, but the second time, I didn't even bother. Still haven't been stung, and thus far the only one to be stung is my sister, who crouched down while one was sitting on the backside of her knee. 
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Jun 30, 2009 22:58
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I'd imagine they'll move on soon - they wouldn't be very smart setting up a long term colony out in the open like that. Finally added a honey super (and queen
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Jul 14, 2009 18:57
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Really, I wouldn't worry about them attacking you - unless you go out and actually poke them with a stick. Most beekeeping clubs have lists of people who will go out and capture swarms, so hopefully the person you contacted is either able to catch them, or knows someone who wants to.
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Jul 15, 2009 16:48
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Animals aren't that dumb - chances are, they've probably been stung before in their lives, and will accord the bees a wide berth. If not, it'll only take a sting or two before they just leave them alone. Well, that's assuming that you aren't keeping black bears for pets or anything. 
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Jul 18, 2009 17:31
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I've got queen excluders on both my hives, but it really does seem to be keeping the bees from branching out. The bottom two supers are just crammed with bees, but there's only a dozen or so enterprising workers at any one time crawling around in the top super.
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Aug 11, 2009 16:42
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| # ¿ Apr 30, 2024 09:25 |
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My friend's theft of honey from his bees has prompted me to consider that I should ... misplace some of my bees' hard work. They'll not miss just one frame, right?
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Aug 31, 2009 10:21
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